Shutterstock

Shutterstock is the world's largest stock content platform: photos, videos, music, illustrations and now also AI tools for image generation. It's the reference for agencies and professionals who need high-volume licensed visual content.

Shutterstock is the world's largest and best-known stock content marketplace, with over 400 million assets including images, videos, vectors, illustrations and music tracks. Search is powerful and filterable by orientation, colors, number of people, style and content age. Shutterstock's royalty-free license is commercial: you pay once for an image or video and can use it in almost all commercial projects without additional royalties (with some exceptions for very high print runs). In recent years Shutterstock has acquired numerous platforms — including GIPHY, Pond5, TurboSquid and PremiumBeat — expanding the catalog. It has also developed AI image generation tools from prompts (Shutterstock AI), with generated images copyright-protected because they're based on the licensed catalog. Two access models: monthly or annual subscriptions with a fixed number of downloads, and the prepaid credit system for those with more sporadic needs. Shutterstock is often the first choice of agencies and marketing teams for volume, quality and catalog breadth.

For agencies, designers, marketers and creative professionals who need high-quality commercially licensed stock visual content for campaigns, publications and marketing materials.

Shutterstock has no free plan. Image subscription plans start at $29 per month for 10 monthly images and scale with volume; the 750 monthly images plan costs around $169 per month. Alternatively, prepaid credits start at around $0.26 per image when buying large packages. Videos and music tracks have separate pricing. Annual subscriptions cost less than monthly ones. Shutterstock has raised prices several times in recent years; it's worth checking the current list.